Happy New Year!!

Well, here we are in another year on the planet earth!  It started at 1200 (noon) GMT yesterday (Dec. 31) at the international timezone.  South Pacific islanders were the first to see the teenaged century pass from "sweet sixteen" to 17 years in.

Right now, it is about 9 PM GMT, so the new year is over 32 hours old, but still quite a fragile young thing.  Where I live, we face another day of holidays with the long weekend (since government workers "need" to celebrate with an official day off!).

Where were you when the new year began?  It would have been pondering getting up at 7 on a Saturday.  I decided that it was not worth the "early" celebration and slept in -- thank you very much!

There are three dates of significance that are coming this year.  The first is on January 20th when a man with no political background becomes president of the United States.  This last happened the year I was born, in 1953, when General Eisenhower was sworn in.  He was easily re-elected for a second term.  Time will tell if President-elect Trump will fare as well.

The second two dates fall in late summer.  On August 13th, my wife and I will observe our fortieth wedding anniversary!  It is hard to believe it's been that long, but we do have two grandsons, so, yep, it's the truth.

And then, just six days later, on August 21st, the "Great American Eclipse" cuts a strip of darkness across the continental United States.  I was in high school the last time I was close enough to travel to a total eclipse of the sun (it came up the east coast).  This one, like the annular eclipse in the 1980's, "comes right over" my house!  We made pin-hole viewers out of disposable diaper boxes back then!  This time we have access to a reflector telescope, though I doubt if we will use it!

Of the three days, I only have control over one of them.  I have just seven and a half months to get ready to make it special.  And so, I will post this and try to make 2017 a blog-filled year parallel to my first attempt ranting and pontificating over a decade ago.

Until next time, then.